Flaxman
Holdings, Ltd.’s Aruna surged to the front in upper stretch and pulled
away from a ground-saving Wild Mia in the run to the wire to win the 20th running
of the $199,675 Mrs. Revere (GII) for 3-year-old fillies by 1 ¾ lengths at
Churchill Downs on Saturday afternoon.

Ridden
by Ramon Dominguez, Aruna raced in mid pack and in the clear on the outside as Dade
Bade and Ice Mist led the field through fractions of :23.88 and
:49.49 in the 1 1/16-mile grass race. Wild Mia, ridden by Freddie Lenclud,
raced along the inside rail in third.

Leaving
the backstretch, both Aruna and Wild Mia moved at the leaders and at the head
of the stretch Wild Mia cut the corner to take a brief lead while Aruna moved
four wide. Aruna immediately took command and began to draw clear past the
eighth pole, completing the distance in 1:46.02 on a Matt Winn Turf Course
listed as firm.

Graham
Motion, who earlier this meet saddled Shared Account to win the Emirates
Airline Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (GI), trains Aruna, who is now
three-for-three since coming to the United States from France.

The
victory was worth $117,610 for the Kentucky-bred daughter of Mr. Greeley out of
the Unbridled mare Surya and increased her earnings to $256,842 with a record
of 8-4-1-1.

Aruna
returned $5.40, $4 and $2.80. Wild Mia returned $7.40 and $4.80 and finished a
neck in front of Fugitive Angel, who paid $2.80 to show under Rosie
Napravnik. It was another half-length back to Snow Top Mountain, who was
followed in order by Stars to Shine, In the Slips, Dade Babe, Ice
Mist, La Cloche and Quiet bySeven.

The
field was reduced to 10 when Gitchee Goomie flipped in the starting gate
during the loading process and was scratched.

Racing
continues Sunday with a 10-race program that begins at 12:40 p.m. (ET).
There’ll be a Super Hi-5 carryover in excess of $22,900 in the final race.

MRS. REVERE
QUOTES

Ramon
Dominguez (jockey, Aruna, winner):
“She has been doing everything right. I was happy to see that she was sharp
today. She put herself in the race earlier than usual. She was a little handy,
but wasn’t too rank by any means. When it’s time to pick it up, she is always
there for you. She’s pretty classy. I don’t know how good she can be.
Everything she has faced and every scenario she has faced she has been great.
And today she was closer and able to fire.”

Graham
Motion (trainer, Aruna, winner, via telephone): “I was impressed with her today because she was just
so much sharper earlier. I don’t know if it was the incident in the gate (that
resulted in the veterinarian’s scratch of No. 4 Gitchee Goomie), but she
started very on-the-muscle. She’s been very relaxed in her races and I just
thought (jockey) Ramon (Dominguez) did a great job to keep her settled long
enough so that when he did finally turn her loose, she had plenty left.”

Q:
When he did let her go? Aruna made a really powerful move on the far turn. “It really was – again, considering how sharp she was
early on. Usually, when they’re that keen early, they don’t finish up. I’m just
glad Ramon stuck with her and I think it made a big difference today, because
he really knows her and had a lot of confidence in her. I think every time she
runs, she’s improved. She’s done so well for this race.”

Q:
This was another step for her since she arrived in the U.S. and she
now has her first graded stakes win. What’s next? “I’ll speak with Alan Cooper, who manages Flaxman
Holdings, and we’ll come up for a plan for next year. I definitely won’t run
her again this year and I won’t be in a hurry to run her next year. We’ll
probably look for something, maybe even Keeneland in the spring. But I’m not
going to be in a big hurry to run her early on in the year.”

Heather
Craig (assistant trainer, Aruna, winner): “She has been nothing but classy since we’ve had her. The first time I
encountered her was at Saratoga
and she was so well behaved and really classy training in the mornings. After
what happened in the gate, (jockey) Ramon (Dominguez) said she got a little
wound up but considering what happened with the horse next to her flipping
over, she behaved very well and ran the way she always does. We are very
pleased with everything she has done at this point. She will be going to Florida, but I don’t
know what (trainer) Graham (Motion) and the owners have planned yet.”

Freddie
Lenclud (jockey, Wild Mia, second):
“She’s a filly that’s a little keen in the race. Today was good. There was
plenty of pace in the race and she was good to lay behind. I had a perfect trip
behind them. I thought I had a good shot. We just got beat by a good filly. She
ran really good.”